Inventing Wonders

Сhapter 7: Craving Simplicity

Lara gazed intently out the window from the second floor of a house on Griboedov Canal. She recalled the first time she went to have a dress made for herself. It felt like an eternity had passed since then. Thanks to the handsome Maximka, Lara regularly got published in several periodicals and even began serializing a novel that was quite popular with the ladies. In fact, she preferred serializing her work rather than writing it for herself, akin to publishing fanfiction—always able to receive reader feedback and change the course. Of course, she missed the instant feedback of modern times, but overall, Lara received enough of it.

For the first time, she could proudly and truthfully say: Larisa Konstantinovna Vovk was a real writer, unlike before. Back then, her so-called writing career resembled a scene from "Slaughterhouse-Five" where everyone was flattered to have a writer among them, although no one had read his work.

As for Lara's new novel, she finally decided to write about one of her not-so-successful relationships. The story was both romantic and intriguing, but most importantly, it was funny. Of course, when that relationship ended, a gaping hole formed in Lara's soul, and she didn't want to live. But, as her therapist rightly said while handing her brightly colored yellow pills: "Time heals." And time indeed healed. At the moment when Lara was dispassionately observing a small scuffle on the street, she suddenly remembered the curly-haired and charismatic guy from the Hermitage. She involuntarily smiled, realizing she remembered him for the first time since falling into Ryleyev's arms. How unimportant once-precious things could become.

"Larisa Konstantinovna, darling!" Anna's excited voice broke through her distant thoughts as she admired her reflection in the mirror. "How can I thank you for such a generous gift?"

Anna had three new dresses made: an everyday dress, an evening dress, and a ball gown. Moreover, they were made by one of the best tailors in the city. Lara scrutinized the girl with an appraising look and graciously nodded to Monsieur Lancastre:

"Marvelous work, maestro, nothing less was expected of you."

"Oh, ma chère Larisa Konstantinovna, always at your service, it is a great honor to dress your petite amie," the master bowed and barely brushed her hand with his lips.

The countess smiled again. Lara's reputation was incredibly viral. Despite spending most of her time wandering the seedy areas of the city and attending only two or three balls all winter, every self-respecting lady felt it her duty to inform everyone that her salon had been graced by the presence of the very sister of the young genius Maxim Konstantinovich. Lara herself had repeatedly heard from Ryleyev's friends about her truly royal manners, her talents for music and dance. But she could explain the tales about herself; after all, initially, most of these anecdotes were spread by Lara and Anna. However, where the legends about Maxim Konstantinovich's beauty, his Masonic ties, and his reputation as a notorious womanizer came from remained a mystery to Larisa Konstantinovna.

And despite the apparent abundance, there was no peace for Lara's soul in Petersburg. The Decembrist meetings, which had so engaged her in the first months, had become tiresome: even studying in a liberal journalism faculty, Lara was moderately conservative. Yes, she saw that not everything was right in the country, but she didn't attend protests and feared any kind of uprising. Therefore, listening day in and day out about the need to overthrow the government became simply annoying. Moreover, Larisa Konstantinovna was well aware of how this game of the great French Revolution would end.

Lara had the sense to correlate one thing with another and concluded that close friendship with Ryleyev could severely damage her reputation once this chaos ended. Lara didn't know much about the emperors of the Russian Empire, but she could guess that the future monarch, Nicholas I, had a terrible character. She knew this almost for sure because the autocrat was a Cancer. This fact amused Lara at the time: during a history lesson, she and her friend googled the monarch's height and found out that he was born either a day earlier or a day later than Lara's dad. Lara's dad was great, but he had a terrible character. Lara believed in horoscopes.